I was discharged from the eating disorder service in February and was doing really well (I even lost some weight!), however after having a tooth removed a month ago, which required eating soft foods for a couple of weeks, I am starting to lose my grip on the eating disorder again.
Trying to find soft foods to eat that were not packed with sugar was sometimes challenging and this has reawakened my crazy sweet tooth
I work out using a Wii Fit or ride my bike as much as I can to try to lose weight and get healthier, but this effort will not be effective if I cannot get back into healthy and enjoyable meals (By the way...I cannot keep anything sweet in the house apart from sugar-free jelly or I will be tempting fate with the eating disorder!).
Every attempt to get myself back on the straight and narrow food-wise is failing, because when I do try to meal-plan, my brain either goes blank or fantasizes about unhealthy foods and I start to panic a bit.
Can anyone advise me (1) how to control my sweet cravings and (2) provide any breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas that I can make for as little an amount of money as possible (I am a student, so meals need to be, (where possible), batch-cook or make ahead).
Thanks for any advice.
Jules
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Ju1ie-Ann3
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Unfortunately there is a lomited anount of time for you to reconnect with the eating disorder service, before you have to be referred back through your gp again...it took me 8 months to access the service last time.
I'll checkout the books and work on the CBT i tried while in therapy.
Try slimming world. They are a very effective way of getting to grips with your cravings with loads of recipes for desserts and main meals. If you are under doctor you would probably would get some months free then you would be able to see if it suited you or not. I have lost two stones and ten pounds on it since end of February but prior to this I was depressed with my plight for 10 years or more. I have learnt to eat well and control my cravings for the first time ever. Just give it a try. You may be surprised. But maybe you have already been down that road? Sorry if I'm not helping.
Hello, I hope since your post that you found a method which works for you during those difficult couple of weeks after having a tooth removed. Please remember, that the tactics you use to beat the eating disorder must be flexible to suit your lifestyle and the awkward setbacks that unfortunately appear - like having a tooth out.
As far as advice goes for soft foods which are not packed with sugar, perhaps you are struggling with this diet because it is too vague. It's difficult to design an effective, achievable diet around such a narrow focus.
Instead, why don't you try the following NHS site:
This site should help you with designing an effective meal plan. Not only does it offer example foods for each main food group - which you can pick from to suit your dental requirements - but it also has information on how to choose low sugar varieties of foods.
The foods suggested on the site are not inherently expensive either; they're will be stocked in supermarkets at student-friendly prices.
One last thing, if you have a sweet tooth, then possibly fruit is a way to satisfy it. It has naturally occurring sugars which are tempered by a high fibre content. This fibre content could make you feel full, as opposed to the morish chocolate bars and biscuits. Many fruit have a soft texture as well!
Hi Jules, from experience, I recommend The Diet Cure by Julia Ross and a ketogenic diet which got rid of all my sugar/carb cravings after battling them for 20 years. It doesn't have to be expensive - ham omlette for breakfast; can of tuna with olives/tomatoes & mayo for lunch and meat/fish and veg for dinner. The supplements that Julia Ross recommend work brilliantly - they are expensive but if you are anything like I used to be, you're probably spending a fortune on binge food every week anyway.
I had two weeks of 'healthy eating' and exercising up a storm...then slipped and had a huge blow-out which ruined all my hard work.
With hindsight i realise that i was being far too restrictive with the diet, which is what caused the failure.
In all honesty, i don't think that i can 'diet' anymore...i always end up getting obcessive over the rules and restricting too much which leads back to binging.
So...I'm trying something different.
I have written down a list of meals and snacks that i really enjoy, (got my dad to check them over for extream unhealthiness), and am going to eat and enjoy those from now on...no calorie counting.
I hopw this will help me lose weight, but i am going to try not to get hung up in the numbers.
Hi again, your plan sounds good I just realised that my post was very misleading though - the book isn't about another diet - it's a cure for dieting i.e. no more diets. I am definitely not on a diet. It's the supplements that I take (amino acid supplements recommended in the book and available everywhere) that seem to have corrected the brain chemical imbalance I had for years that drove my cravings day in day out. Once I started taking the supplements all my cravings disappeared and I didn't need to diet anymore because I found I wasn't that hungry and had an appetite for healthy food all of a sudden. It was nothing short of a miracle for me. It wasn't that I suddenly found extra will-power or was 'resisting' things like donuts and biscuits and icrecream, I simply stopped wanting to eat them!!! I very very rarely have any cravings for anything like that at all. Just now and again if I walk past one of those places that sell fresh sugar donuts and I will think 'wow they smell nice'. But it doesn't last or turn into an obsession like it used to - before if I smelt donunts and wanted some, I'd use all of my willpower to resist for a few days and then end up buying ten and eating ALL of them! I genuinely don't have to use any willpower at all to eat properly now. Anyway, good luck with everything!
Diagnosis is important. Sounds like you were ok before the dental treatment. Did the tooth removal cause some issue of self issues? If so The acceptance of a change to you, the reason for the tooth removal etc and to reestablish that you are in control of your life maybe needs working on. Self-recognition. If it’s the diet - Soft foods don’t need to be sweet there is shepherd’s pie, soup - savoury stuff etc out there too. The other nutrition advice in your replies are relevant too.
It’s probably a combo of things but look at savoury soft foods and see how you could have corrected things at the time of the fall down - change. Do it. Be honest with yourself, enjoy the ability to be aware - control remember you are your own laboratory you have the power to properly analyse things and move on.
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I just realised that my post was very misleading though - the book isn't about another diet - it's a cure for dieting i.e. no more diets. I am definitely not on a diet. It's the supplements that I take (amino acid supplements recommended in the book and available everywhere) that seem to have corrected the brain chemical imbalance I had for years that drove my cravings day in day out. Once I started taking the supplements all my cravings disappeared and I didn't need to diet anymore because I found I wasn't that hungry and had an appetite for healthy food all of a sudden. It was nothing short of a miracle for me. It wasn't that I suddenly found extra will-power or was 'resisting' things like donuts and biscuits and icrecream, I simply stopped wanting to eat them!!! I very very rarely have any cravings for anything like that at all. Just now and again if I walk past one of those places that sell fresh sugar donuts and I will think 'wow they smell nice'. But it doesn't last or turn into an obsession like it used to - before if I smelt donunts and wanted some, I'd use all of my willpower to resist for a few days and then end up buying ten and eating ALL of them! I genuinely don't have to use any willpower at all to eat properly now. Anyway, good luck with everything!
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